WoWMar 19, 2024 4:00 pm CT

The mysterious World of Warcraft patch 10.2.6 launches today! Are the WoW servers up yet? YES!

By Liz Patt

It’s here, it’s here, World of Warcraft patch 10.2.6 is here… live now! We had an extended maintenance friends but it’s over. This sneaky little patch has been a big ol’ question mark since it showed up on the World of Warcraft roadmap in December. Its small inclusion has raised a lot of questions, as it is the first patch in almost 20 years without PTR testing, but the most important question on everyone’s mind is: are the servers up yet? YES!

Here’s what we know about patch 10.2.6:

Is it a pirate patch? Yes! The patch features the new Plunderstorm PVP battle royale-style event.
It’s going live today, after the closest we’ve come to a complete media blackout on the theme — but are secrets a good thing, or has Blizzard overhyped what’s coming?
We have an 8 hour maintenance to make it through! Servers are expected to be up by 3pm pacific.
It features a limited time event. We don’t know how long Plunderstorm will last, but it was announced as a limited event.
It’s not the start of Season 4, which will start in a few weeks, releasing Dragonflight fated raids upon the unsuspecting masses.

This patch was already going to be special, as it’s the first x.6 patch since Cataclysm, and we didn’t quite know what to expect. So rather than leaving you with patch notes or prep guides, I’m including Holly Longdale’s details on patch 10.2.6 from February’s “A Word on World of Warcraft” for everyone to muse on as we go into the first WoW surprise in years.

For the 10.2.6 patch for Dragonflight, we created what we think is a unique event inspired by past musings from the community. We can say that it is open to anyone with a WoW subscription if they want to participate (Classic or Dragonflight players). That’s all we’re going say. Sorry, not sorry? Our goal is to continue to keep it secret— and keep it safe. The speculation is great! We watched the reaction to the surprises in Season of Discovery and thought we’d try a similar, but different, approach for Dragonflight.

That means there will be no PTR (Public Test Realm) for a portion of the next content update as we have traditionally done. What we can say is that it will be coming in March. A finer point, but the update will also include everything that’s needed for Dragonflight Season 4 but will be hidden. Around (after) the launch of the update we will make Season 4 available for testing on a 10.2.6 PTR before it goes live.

Why are we doing this? We like the idea of releasing content that has some surprises and isn’t datamined or revealed in advance. We also like to see the joy the community gets out of uncovering it all together as they all jump in to play. We look forward to seeing if the community likes this type of surprise and look forward to hearing your feedback. This is risky experiment and could be a bit bumpy, though we are doing everything we can to ensure success.

The WoW team prides itself on ensuring a solid, quality launch. We are sensitive and reactive to problems and issues that can and might arise, so I hope you can forgive us if we experience some hiccups with this experiment and work alongside us as we try this out in March. ALL WILL BE REVEALED THEN!

Now we know the surprise was the Plunderstorm, which will be live as soon as the servers are back up — which is now!

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